A vehicle paint spray booth exhausts air laden with volatile organic compounds. These compounds must be removed from the exhaust air stream to comply with applicable environment regulations. Existing abatement systems typically burn the exhaust to break down the volatile organic compounds into, among other products, oxides of nitrogen, which must-then themselves be abated. In addition, there is a substantial cost associated with energy consumption. It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for abating or removing volatile organic compounds from an air stream, such as the exhaust from a vehicle paint spray booth, that require reduced energy consumption, and that produce hydrogen as a product that can be fed to a fuel cell to produce electrical power. Another object of the invention is to provide an electrical power system and method that include a stationary fuel cell which delivers power derived from volatile organic compounds removed from an air stream.
A system for removing volatile organic compounds from an air stream in accordance with a presently preferred embodiment of the invention includes an adsorption system operable in a first mode of operation for adsorbing volatile organic compounds from the air stream, and in a second mode of operation for heating the adsorbent to release the volatile organic compounds adsorbed during the first mode of operation. A fuel processor receives the volatile organic compounds released during the second mode of operation to convert the volatile organic compounds into hydrogen and oxides of carbon. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the hydrogen is fed to a fuel cell for producing electrical power. The adsorption system in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention includes a plurality of adsorbents and associated heaters disposed in associated chambers, and valves for routing the incoming air stream through at least one of the chambers while at the same time operating the heaters associated with at least one of the other chambers to release the volatile organic compounds previously adsorbed. In this way, the system is continuously operable to produce hydrogen fed to the fuel cell.